Mastering the Art of Infographics for Public Relations Efforts

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but how about 1,000 hits? Information graphics, or more commonly known as “infographics” are graphic visual representations of information, data, or knowledge that help to present information quickly and clearly. It is hard to ignore the surge of infographics that you see every day in print, online and social media.

From the USA Today Snapshot to Instagram to research reports, infographics are everywhere.

Source: USA Today

Why have infographics become so popular? For starters – they are fun, visually appealing, and a great way to communicate a lot of information in a succinct way. In addition, consumers are bombarded with a massive amount of information on a daily basis and it has shortened our attention spans. In fact, a recent Nielsen Company audience report revealed that adults in the U.S. spend nearly 11 hours each day consuming media.

Competition for consumer attention is fierce and a strong visual will make people more compelled to reader your content and to share it with others. According to a recent article on HubSpot, when people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of what they heard three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of it three days later. Additionally, infographics are much more likely to be shared via social media than your standard text article. In fact, Infographics are “liked” and shared on social media 3x more than any other type of content, according to HubSpot.

What’s the Story?

Infographics can be used to support a campaign in a variety of ways – to display survey data, illustrate a trend or timeline, make comparisons, raise awareness of an issue, simplify a concept or process or demonstrate results of research. To be effective, infographics must be focused on your core idea and tell a compelling story. Use a compelling headline that grabs the user’s attention and use images and captions to connect the dots. Contrary to popular belief, you do not need original data to leverage infographics. As long as you include the sources of information, you can also use industry data, trends, and other relevant information to support your idea.

Keep it Simple and Sharable

The design of an infographic is as important as the content. Compelling infographics are well designed, visually appealing, and easily digestible. Limit fonts and be consistent with the color palette. Remember to leave white space. The infographic also has to be easy to view and easy to share. Designing it to be a manageable length and size will make it easier to share and view on social media and other mobile platforms.

Share Far and Wide

Once you’ve created an infographic, you need to promote it. There are many ways that you can share it to increase awareness, visibility and engagement for your business: send in a press release as an accompanying visual; share on social media; post on your website and company blog; or send with a pitch to targeted media contacts.

At Zer0 to 5ive, we love to use infographics in our PR campaigns and we have seen the difference that a well-designed, visually appealing, and easily digested infographic can make in media coverage, particularly on social media. We’ve included a few of our favorites below to give you some ideas on using infographics in your next PR or marketing campaign.